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FORMULA X, an imitation ecstasy tablet we bought for £10, includes the chemical 5 MeO-Dalt and the amphetamine EAPB, which has ­already been linked to at least one tragedy.

A 32-year-old man died and two others in their 30s were hospitalised after reportedly taking EAPB at the Brownstock music festival in Chelmsford, Essex, on August 31.

Police later issued an urgent warning about the drug, but it has yet to be banned by the Home Office.

Further toxicology results are due to be made public next month and no ­inquest has yet taken place.

Jeremy Sare, of the Angelus Foundation, which campaigns against legal highs, said: “Parents will be ­horrified by this. These results only serve to show just how dangerous these things are. Young people and their families need as much information as possible about these substances to reduce the harm they cause.”

The 5 MeO-Dalt we found in Formula X was also detected in ­SMIL-E’S, an ­imitation ecstasy tablet we bought for £10. GOGAINE – a £25 1g packet of white ­powder that is meant to be snorted like cocaine – contained ethylphenidate, a strong psycho­stimulant that is chemically ­similar to Ritalin, the controversial drug that is frequently prescribed to children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.

Ethylphenidate was similarly found in another powder similar to cocaine called EL BLANCO, also £25 per gram.

In August two men were hospitalised in Exeter, Devon, after reportedly taking the drug. The El Blanco powder we tested also contained benzocaine, used by ­dentists as an anaesthetic.

This was also found in CHINA WHITE, a product meant to be similar to cocaine, a gram of which was sold to us for £20.

Sean Carnahan, 22, was said to have taken China White before he died in Belfast in July. His mum Tracy published a picture of her son in intensive care to warn against legal highs after she was ­contacted by concerned parents.

She said: “I have been receiving emails from other parents whose ­children, maybe some as young as 15 or 16, are constantly on that stuff and they don’t know what to do. They’ve been told by police that ­nothing can be done because it’s legal.”

The final high we tested was a £7 DISCO BISCUITS tablet which was found to ­contain alpha-methyltryptamine, another psychedelic stimulant.

All these legal highs were tested last week by Environment Scientifics Group, which works with a number of British police forces, at its headquarters in Burton on Trent, Staffs.

Substance

ESG’s Adam Booker, who oversaw the research, said users can never be sure what is in the legal highs they are taking.

He said: “We often see different ­substances being sold under the same name. So one package of a brand-named substance could contain different ­ingredients from another.”

As we revealed last week, the legal highs are being sold at more than 200 High Street stores. Shops can sell them to over 18s if they are marked “not for human consumption” and staff do not give ­guidance on taking them.

They are made to have similar effects to dangerous banned substances but fall outside the Misuse of Drugs Act.